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Screen Gems
Screen Gems, Inc. is an American film production and distribution studio that is a division of Sony Pictures' Motion Picture Group, a subsidiary of Japanese multinational conglomerate Sony.1 It has served several different purposes for its parent companies over the decades since its incorporation. The label currently specializes in genre films, mainly horror.2 Radio studio: 1916–1928 During a period of early broadcast business consolidation, radio manufacturer Radio Corporation of America (RCA) acquired New York City radio station WEAF from American Telephone & Telegraph (AT&T).3 Westinghouse, a shareholder in RCA, had a competing outlet in Newark, New Jersey pioneer station WJZ4 (no relation to the radio and television station in Baltimore currently using those call letters), which also served as the flagship for a loosely structured network. This station was transferred from Westinghouse to RCA in 1913, and moved to New York City.5 WEAF acted as a laboratory for AT&T's manufacturing and supply outlet Western Electric, whose products included transmitters and antennas. The Bell System, AT&T's telephone utility, was developing technologies to transmit voice- and music-grade audio over short and long distances, using both wireless and wired methods. The 1922 creation of WEAF offered a research-and-development center for those activities. WEAF maintained a regular schedule of radio programs, including some of the first commercially sponsored programs, and was an immediate success. In an early example of "chain" or "networking" broadcasting, the station linked with Outlet Company-owned WJAR in Providence, Rhode Island; and with AT&T's station in Washington, D.C., WCAP. New parent RCA saw an advantage in sharing programming, and after getting a license for radio station WRC in Washington, D.C., in 1913, attempted to transmit audio between cities via low-quality telegraph lines. AT&T refused outside companies access to its high-quality phone lines. The early effort fared poorly, since the uninsulated telegraph lines were susceptible to atmospheric and other electrical interference. In 1915, AT&T decided that WEAF and its embryonic network were incompatible with the company's primary goal of providing a telephone service. AT&T offered to sell the station to RCA in a deal that included the right to lease AT&T's phone lines for network transmission.6 RCA spent $1 million to purchase WEAF and Washington sister station WCAP, shut down the latter station, and merged its facilities with surviving station WRC; in late 1918, it subsequently announced the creation of a new division known as the National Broadcasting Company.7 The division's ownership was split among RCA (a majority partner at 50%), its founding corporate parent General Electric (which owned 30%) and Westinghouse (which owned the remaining 20%). NBC officially started broadcasting on November 15, 1926. WEAF and WJZ, the flagships of the two earlier networks, were operated side-by-side for about a year as part of the new NBC. On January 1, 1927, NBC formally divided their respective marketing strategies: the "Red Network" offered commercially sponsored entertainment and music programming; the "Blue Network" mostly carried sustaining – or non-sponsored – broadcasts, especially news and cultural programs. Various histories of NBC suggest the color designations for the two networks came from the color of the pushpins NBC engineers used to designate affiliate stations of WEAF (red) and WJZ (blue), or from the use of double-ended red and blue colored pencils. Radio City West was located at Sunset Boulevard and Vine Street in Los Angeles until it was replaced by a bank in the mid-1960s. On April 5, 1927, NBC expanded to the West Coast with the launch of the NBC Orange Network, also known as the Pacific Coast Network. This was followed by the debut of the NBC Gold Network, also known as the Pacific Gold Network, on October 18, 1931. The Orange Network carried Red Network programming, and the Gold Network carried programming from the Blue Network. Initially, the Orange Network recreated Eastern Red Network programming for West Coast stations at KPO in San Francisco. In 1936, the Orange Network affiliate stations became part of the Red Network, and at the same time the Gold Network became part of the Blue Network. In the 1930s, NBC also developed a network for shortwave radio stations, called the NBC White Network. In 1927, NBC moved its operations to 711 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, occupying the upper floors of a building designed by architect Floyd Brown.8 The space that NBC occupied was designed by Raymond Hood, who based the appearance of its multiple studio facilities on "a Gothic church, the Roman forum, a Louis XIV room and, in a space devoted to jazz, something 'wildly futuristic, with plenty of color in bizarre designs.'"8 NBC outgrew the Fifth Avenue facilities in 1933.8 In 1930, General Electric was charged with antitrust violations, resulting in the company's decision to divest itself of RCA. The newly separate company signed leases to move its corporate headquarters into the new Rockefeller Center in 1931. John D. Rockefeller, Jr., founder and financier of Rockefeller Center, arranged the deal with GE chairman Owen D. Young and RCA president David Sarnoff. When it moved into the complex in 1933, RCA became the lead tenant at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, known as the "RCA Building" (later the GE Building, now the Comcast Building), which housed NBC's production studios as well as theaters for RCA-owned RKO Pictures.9 Animation studio: 1928–1946 In 1924, Charles Mintz married Margaret J. Winkler,an independent film distributor that had distributed quite a few animated series during the silent era. He quickly assumed roles in the distribution of these series. Amongst those were Walt Disney Alice Comedies and Krazy Kat. After Charles Mintz become involved with the progress it was clear that he was unhappy with the production costs on cartoons and asked Disney and Ub Iwerks to develop a new character. The result was Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, the first animated character for Universal Pictures.3 In February 1928, when the character proved more successful than expected, Disney set on train to meet with Mintz over the budget wanting to spend more on the cartoons Mintz refused Mintz hired away all of Disney's animators except Iwerks, who refused to leave Disney, and moved the production of the Oswald cartoons to his new Charles Mintz Studio, along with Margaret Winkler's brother, George. After losing the Oswald contract to Walter Lantz, Mintz focused on the Krazy Kat series, which was the output of a Winkler-distributed property. The Winkler Studio became known as the Mintz Studio after he took over in 1929. In 1938, a few months before his death, Screen Gems after Columbia Pictures took over from him.4 Walt Disney mentioned in an interview that Mintz cultivated his standards for high-quality cartoon movies, and he kept emphasizing them even after their contract ended.5 Mintz was nominated for two Academy Awards for Best Short Subject. His first nomination was in 1935 for Holiday Land, and he was nominated again in 1938 for The Little Match Girl. The name was originally used in 1933, when Columbia Pictures acquired a stake in Charles Mintz's animation studio.6 The name was derived from an early Columbia Pictures slogan, "Gems of the Screen"; itself a takeoff on the song "Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean".7 For an entire decade, Charles Mintz produced Krazy Kat, Scrappy, and Color Rhapsody animated film shorts through Columbia Pictures. When Mintz became indebted to Columbia in 1938, he ended up selling his studio to them. Mintz's production manager became the studio head but was shortly replaced by Mintz's brother-in-law, George Winkler. Columbia then decided to "clean house" by ousting the bulk of the staff (including Winkler) and hiring creative cartoonist Frank Tashlin. After Tashlin's short stay came Dave Fleischer, formerly of the Fleischer Studios, and after several of his successors came Ray Katz and Henry Binder from Warner Bros. Cartoons (previously Leon Schlesinger Productions). Animators, directors, and writers at the series included people such as Art Davis, Sid Marcus, Bob Wickersham, and during its latter period, Bob Clampett. Like most studios, the Screen Gems studio had several established characters on their roster. These included Flippity and Flop, Willoughby Wren, and Tito and His Burrito. However, the most successful characters the studio had were The Fox and the Crow, a comic duo of a refined Fox and a street-wise Crow. Screen Gems was, in an attempt to keep costs low, the last American animation studio to stop producing black and white cartoons. The final black-and-white Screen Gems shorts appeared in 1946, over three years after the second-longest holdouts (Famous Studios and Leon Schlesinger Productions). During that same year, the studio shut its doors for good,8 though their animation output continued to be distributed until 1949. The Screen Gems cartoons were only moderately successful in comparison to those of Disney, Warner Bros., and MGM. The studio's purpose was assumed by an outside producer, United Productions of America (UPA), whose cartoons, including Gerald McBoing Boing''and the ''Mr. Magoo series, were major critical and commercial successes. Theatrical short film series * Scrappy (1931- 1937) * Barney Google (1935- 1936) * Color Rhapsodies (1934–1949) * Fables (1939–1942) * Phantasies (1939–1949) * Flippy (1946) * The Fox and the Crow (1943–1946) * Li'l Abner (1944) One-shot theatrical short films * The Great Cheese Mystery (1941) * The Dumbconscious Mind (1942) * The Vitamin G-Man (1943) * He Can't Make It Stick (1943) Television subsidiary: 1940–1974 In September 1940, Columbia borrowed the Screen Gems name for its television production subsidiary when the studio acquired Pioneer Telefilms, a television commercial company founded in 1939 by Ralph Cohn, the nephew of Columbia's head Harry Cohn.9 Pioneer was later reorganized as Screen Gems.9 The studio started its new business in New York on April 15, 1941.9 By 1943, Screen Gems became a half-fledged television studio by producing and syndicating first shows produced by MGM (see below). By 1944, the studio had produced a series of about 30 episodes coordinated releases for television under the TV filmography "Tom and Jerry" such a "Droopy". On July 1, 1948, Screen Gems was began first film "The Ford Television Theatre". The final notable production from this incarnation of Screen Gems continue filmographies from MGM to early 1950s. By 1951, Screen Gems became a full-fledged television studio by producing and syndicating several popular shows (see below). By 1952, the studio had produced a series of about 100 film-record coordinated releases for television under the brand "TV Disk Jockey Toons" in which the films "synchronize perfectly with the records".10 On July 1, 1956, studio veteran Irving Briskin stepped down as stage manager of Columbia Pictures and form his production company Briskin Productions, Inc. to release series through Screen Gems and supervise all of its productions.11 On December 10, 1956, Screen Gems expanded into television syndication by acquiring Hygo Television Films (a.k.a. Serials Inc.) and its affiliated company United Television Films, Inc. Hygo Television Films was founded in 1951 by Jerome Hyams, who also acquired United Television Films in 1955 that was founded by Archie Mayers.12 During that year, the studio began syndicating Columbia Pictures's theatrical film library to television, including the wildly successful series of two-reel short subjects starring The Three Stooges in 1957. Earlier on August 2, 1957, they also acquired syndication rights to "Shock!", a package of Universal horror films (later shifted to MCA TV), which was enormously successful in reviving that genre.13 The name "Screen Gems," at the time, was used to hide the fact that the film studio was entering television production and distribution. Many film studios saw television as a threat to their business, thus it was expected that they would shun the medium. However, Columbia was one of a few studios who branched out to television under a pseudonym to conceal the true ownership of the television arm. That is until 1955, when Columbia decided to use the woman from its logo under the Screen Gems banner, officially billing itself as a part of "the Hollywood studios of Columbia Pictures", as spoken in announcements at the end of some Screen Gems series. From 1958 to 1974, under President John H. Mitchell and Vice President of Production Harry Ackerman, Screen Gems delivered classic TV shows and sitcoms: Father Knows Best, Dennis the Menace, The Donna Reed Show, Hazel, Here Come the Brides, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Gidget, Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie, The Flying Nun, The Monkees, and The Partridge Family. It was also the original distributor for Hanna-BarberaProductions, an animation studio founded by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera after leaving Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and was also the distributor of the Soupy Sales show. The company also entered a co-production deal with Canada's CTV Television Network and produced several shows, many of which were filmed or taped in Toronto for distribution to Canadian stations (Showdown, The Pierre Berton Show).[citation needed] The company even expanded as far as Australia, opening Screen Gems Australia to produce shows for that country's networks, including The Graham Kennedy Show for the Nine Network.14 In the late 1950s, Screen Gems also entered into ownership and operation of television stations. Stations owned by Screen Gems over the years included KCPX (Salt Lake City; now KTVX, owned by Nexstar Media Group), WVUE (New Orleans; now owned by the Louisiana Media Company), WAPA (San Juan; now owned by the Hemisphere Media Group), WNJU (Linden, NJ; now owned by NBCUniversal), and several radio stations as well, including 50,000-watt clear channel WWVA (Wheeling WV; now owned by iHeartMedia). As a result, in funding its acquisitions, 18% of Screen Gems' shares was spun off from Columbia and it became a publicly traded company in NYSE until 1968. From 1964–1969, former child star Jackie Cooper was Vice President of Program Development. He was responsible for packaging series (such as Bewitched) and other projects and selling them to the networks. In 1965, Columbia Pictures acquired a fifty percent interest in the New York-based commercial production company EUE, which was incorporated into Screen Gems and renamed EUE/Screen Gems. The studios were sold in 1982 to longtime Columbia Pictures Executive, George Cooney, shortly after Columbia Pictures was sold to The Coca-Cola Company. On December 23, 1968, Screen Gems merged with its parent company Columbia Pictures Corporation and became part of the newly formed Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. for $24.5 million.15 On May 6, 1974, Screen Gems was renamed Columbia Pictures Television as suggested by then-studio president David Gerber.16 The final notable production from this incarnation of Screen Gems before the name change was the 1974 mini-series QB VII. Columbia was, technically, the last major studio to enter television by name. Changes in corporate ownership of Columbia came in 1982, when Coca-Cola bought the company, although continuing to trade under the CPT name. In the mid-1980s, Coca-Cola reorganized its television holdings to create Coca-Cola Television, merging CPT with the television unit of Embassy Communications as Columbia/Embassy Television,17 although both companies continued to use separate identities until January 4, 1988, when it and Tri-Star Television were reunited under the CPT name. Columbia also ran Colex Enterprises, a joint venture with LBS Communications to distribute the Screen Gems library, which ended in 1988.18 On December 21, 1987, Coca-Cola spun off its entertainment holdings and sold it to Tri-Star Pictures, Inc. for $3.1 billion. It was renamed to Columbia Pictures Entertainment, Inc., also creating Columbia/Tri-Star by merging Columbia and Tri-Star. Both studios continued to produce and distribute films under their separate names.19 In 1989, Columbia Pictures Entertainment was purchased by Sony Corporation of Japan. On August 7, 1991, Columbia Pictures Entertainment was renamed as Sony Pictures Entertainment as a film production-distribution subsidiary and subsequently combined CPT with a revived TriStar Television in 1994 to form Columbia TriStar Television. The name "Screen Gems" was also utilized for a syndicated hour-long program for classic television called Screen Gems Network that aired in 1999 and ran until 2002.20 The television division today is presently known as Sony Pictures Television. Selected TV shows Television programs produced and/or syndicated by Screen Gems (most shows produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions are now owned and distributed by Warner Bros. Television Distribution, except for Jeannie and Partridge Family 2200 A.D. (see below): * Tom and Jerry (1943–49) * Droopy (1943–49) * One Shots (1943–51) * Barney Bear (1944–49) * Mighty Mouse (1944–51) * Howdy Doody (1947–60) * Hollywood Screen Test (1948–53) * The Ford Television Theatre (1948–57) * Burns & Allen (syndicated reruns of filmed episodes from 1952–1958) * Art Linkletter's House Party (produced by John Guedel) (1952–1969) * Captain Midnight [later rebranded on television as Jet Jackson, Flying Commando] (1954–1956) * The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin (produced by Herbert B. Leonard) (1954–1959) * Father Knows Best (1954–1962) * Tales of the Texas Rangers (1955–1957) * Treasure Hunt (1956–1959) * Playhouse 90 (selected filmed episodes) (1956–1960) * Celebrity Playhouse (1955–1956) * Jungle Jim (1955–1956) * Ranch Party (1957–1958) * Jefferson Drum (produced by Mark Goodson-Bill Todman Productions) (1958) * The Donna Reed Show (1958–66) * Rescue 8 (1958–1960) * Naked City (produced by Herbert B. Leonard) (1958–1963) * Behind Closed Doors (1958–1959) * Tightrope (1959–1960) * Dennis the Menace (1959–1963) * The Three Stooges two-reel short subjects produced 1934–1958 (1959–1974; distributed thereafter by other Columbia/Sony divisions) * Two Faces West (1960–1961); syndicated * My Sister Eileen (1960–1961) * Route 66 (produced by Herbert B. Leonard) (1960–1964) (Sony surrendered the rights to the estate of Herbert B. Leonard) * Hazel (1961–1966) * Grindl (1963–1964) * The Farmer's Daughter (1963–1966) * Bewitched (1964–1972; produced by Ashmont Productions 1971–1972) * Days of Our Lives (produced by Corday Productions 1965–1974; produced thereafter by Columbia Pictures Television, Columbia TriStar Television and Sony Pictures Television) * Camp Runamuck (1965–1966) * Gidget (1965–1966) * The Soupy Sales Show (1965–1966; produced by WNEW-TV New York City) * I Dream of Jeannie (1965–1970; produced by Sidney Sheldon Productions) * Morning Star (1965–1966) (in conjunction with Corday Productions) * The Wackiest Ship in the Army (1965–1966) * Hawk (1966) * Love on a Rooftop (1966–1967) * The Monkees (1966–1968; produced by Raybert Productions) * Adventures of the Seaspray (1967; produced by Pacific Films) * Everybody's Talking (1967) * The Flying Nun (1967–1970) * The Second Hundred Years (1967–1968) * Here Come the Brides (1968–1970) * The Ugliest Girl in Town (1968–1969) * The Johnny Cash Show (1969–1970) * Playboy After Dark (1969–1970; produced by Playboy Enterprises) * Nancy (1970–1971; produced by Sidney Sheldon Productions) * The Partridge Family (1970–1974) * The Young Rebels (1970–1971) * Getting Together (1971–1972) * The Good Life (1971–1972; produced by Lorimar Television) * Bridget Loves Bernie (1972–1973) * The Paul Lynde Show (1972–1973; produced by Ashmont Productions) * Temperatures Rising (1972–1973; produced by Ashmont Productions) * Needles and Pins (1973) * The New Temperatures Rising Show (1973–1974; produced by Ashmont Productions) * The Young and the Restless (produced by Bell Dramatic Serial Company and Corday Productions 1973–1974; produced thereafter by Columbia Pictures Television, Columbia TriStar Television and Sony Pictures Television) * Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1973–1974) * Police Story (produced by David Gerber Productions 1973–1974; produced thereafter by Columbia Pictures Television from 1974 to 1977) * The Girl with Something Extra (1973–1974) * Sale of the Century (1973–1974) * Jeannie (1973; co-produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions. Sony Pictures Television owns the distribution rights due to the show's connection to I Dream of Jeannie) * Partridge Family 2200 A.D. (1974; co-produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions. Slated to be Screen Gems production but produced by its successor; Columbia Pictures Television; Sony Pictures Television owns the distribution rights due to the show's connection to The Partridge Family) * That's My Mama (1974–1975; Slated to be a Screen Gems production but produced by its successor; Columbia Pictures Television)16 Hanna-Barbera Productions Note: The following shows were produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions until 1974. * The Classic Tom and Jerry Show (1949–1950) * The Tom and Jerry Show (1950–1953) * The Mighty Mouse Show (1951–1953) * The Barney Bear Show (1952–1954) * Chilly Willy (1953–1955) * The Hanna-Barbera First Cartoon Series (1954–1955) * The Droopy Show (1954–1955) * Mighty Mouse Playhouse (1955–1965) * The Mr. Magoo Show (1956–1958) * The Ruff and Reddy Show (1957–1960) * The Huckleberry Hound Show (1958–1961) * The Quick Draw McGraw Show (1959–1962) * The Flintstones (1960–1966) * The Yogi Bear Show (1961–1962) * Top Cat (1961–1962) * The Jetsons (1962–1963) * The Hanna-Barbera New Cartoon Series (1962–1963) * The Magilla Gorilla Show (1963–1967) * Peter Potamus (1964–1966) * Jonny Quest (1964–65) * The Atom Ant/Secret Squirrel Show (1965–1967) * Alice in Wonderland (1966) * Yogi's Gang (1973) Briskin Productions * Goodyear Theatre (1957–1960) * Alcoa Theatre (1957–1960) * Casey Jones (1958) * The Donna Reed Show (1958–1966; full rights belong to the estate of Donna Reed since 2008) * Manhunt (1959–1961) Specialty feature film studio, 1998–present In 1998, Screen Gems was resurrected as a fourth specialty film-producing arm of Sony's Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group. It was created after Triumph Films was closed down.23 Screen Gems produces and releases "films that fall between the wide-release films traditionally developed and distributed by Columbia Pictures and those released by Sony Pictures Classics".24 Many of its releases are of the horror, thriller, action, drama, comedy and urban genres, making the unit similar to Dimension Films (part of Lantern Entertainment), Hollywood Pictures (part of the Walt Disney Company), and Rogue Pictures (when it was formally owned by Relativity Media and before that, Universal Studios). The highest grossing Screen Gems film, as of March 2017, is Resident Evil: The Final Chapter, which grossed a total of $307,000,000 worldwide so far. Screen Gems films 1990s 2000s 2010s Upcoming releases